This book follows Margot, who is a child of an affair between two high profile people. It is Margot's coming of age tale amidst this, and I couldn't put it down. It was unique and propulsive and I highly recommend!

This story unfolds through the eyes of 17 year old Margot. Her mother is a famous actor and her father is a rising politician. However, her father has a wife and children and she and her mother are his secret affair. Her father comes to see her sporadically. She wonders what it would be like if she had a full time father. As a young woman she does not always know who to trust. This book has a slower pace than most books. It is not action packed. It is the viewpoint of a young woman. It is really nice to sometimes read a book with a slower pace that delves into feelings and changes in someone's life. I did enjoy reading this book.

A terrific debut novel, telling a compelling coming-of-age tale. Margot is the daughter of a respected avant-garde actress and, secretly, the married French Minister of Culture. It's not a spoiler to say that the secret doesn't last even the first half of the novel -- but how it comes out and why is part of what makes Lemoine's novel so richly compelling. It reads at an almost-thriller clip and its rich with symbolism, but it never tries too hard to be anything other than the chronicle of a young woman who isn't aware yet of her own power. Lemoine's writing is also decadent (she published recipes for most of the food in the book on her website! amazing.) and yet never overwrought. There's a 60s/70s classic taste to this novel -- it takes place in the present but it feels somehow timeless, or at least (and I say this knowing full well the complex connotations of the word) vintage.

Believe it or not, I was actually so excited to read The Margot Affair, that when I saw it for sale on eBay, I almost put a bid in. Then I didn't and I'm sort of glad. While the book has incredible writing and prose, it just wasn't a story that I found myself caring about. I truly hate when that happens. As much as I wanted to love it, and I was completely happy to be reading bits and pieces in French, I just didn't have the joy I was expecting.

I will say, however, that the writing is superb. It's wonderfully constructed to the point that it almost feels like a Tartt novel. But that being said, for me, I didn't connect to any of the characters. I didn't care about anything happening, and I wasn't as drawn to read as I wanted to be. But this is Lemoine's first novel, and I will undoubtedly be back when there's a second.

The Margot Affair publishes 6.16.2020.

3/5 Stars

"Coming of age" is a strange expression. Is it a process or an event? Does it occur at a certain numerical age or at a certain level of maturity, the product of knowledge and past experience? Margot, the titular protagonist of The Margot Affair is the daughter of a secret dalliance between her mother and a well-known politician with another official family, comes of age during her final year of lycée at a Parisian high school.

What Margot seems to learn—painfully—is to accept the complexity of adult life. To grow up, she must understand the foibles of her father and mother and all the other adults that fail her. By doing so, she loses the rosy simplicity of youth to join the dark and realistic hallways of adulthood. The effects of this transition are similar to those mined by Françoise Sagan in Bonjour Tristesse, a novel mentioned in this text as the ur-loss-of-innocence story.

In addition to a fresh take on these old themes, The Margot Affair offers an ample dose of psychosexual tension and passages devoted to delicious food. The story also twists in ways you don't expect it to based on the premise, gathering speed particularly after a surprising event occurring at the end of Part I. A charming novel that teeters between complexity and simplicity, The Margot Affair is a quiet but compelling entry into the "coming of age" genre.

This book was great! It was so easy to lose yourself in the story, and kept you turning pages to see what happened next! Will definitely be recommending!

3.75 stars

This novel is understated in an incredibly appealing way, the character development is slow but realistic, and the sense of place is palpable throughout. Readers can smell, taste, and hear various parts of France as they go.

I found Margot a bit frustrating, but the reasons are absolutely on brand for her age, her challenging family situation, and her general life circumstances. Her relationship to her sexuality is refreshing; unlike so many women identifying characters her age, she is not obsessed with what she should and could be doing. Sex - and her related identities - are just parts of who she is, and her disappointments seem to come from the people around her versus bizarre social expectations. This is a nice connection to the circumstances surrounding her birth and family, too.

It's hard to know who to root for in some ways, but that complexity also makes this work appealing. ALL of the characters are flawed, but they mostly have at least moments of sweetness, vulnerability, and even redemption that make them appealing by the end.

A charming, quiet read that is perfect for a summer when one dreams of France and absolutely cannot get there.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with this brilliant ARC.In exchange for the ARC, I offer my unbiased review.

“I thought I wanted transparency, but in truth, I enjoyed keeping secrets.”

Margot, seventeen, is the love child of a once famous French actress and a married prominent French politician. Margot has never given much thought to her father’s other life but a chance encounter with his wife leaves Margot desiring more. Hoping to force her father’s secret family into the limelight she shares her identity with a reporter. This impulsive act will lead to unforeseen consequences.

Beautiful writing, evocative descriptions, believable characters make for a compulsive coming of age story. For fans of White Oleander, A Ladder to the Sky and Call Me By Your Name this is an impressive debut. Highly recommend.

While I love the Paris setting and the story of a political affair told from the daughter of the mistress, I felt this book was trying to be two different stories. I wish it had explored more of the relationship between Margot and her parents. Those were the strongest parts of the story. The novel as a whole was good, not great.

You know how in Mary Poppins, Mary, the kids and Bert jumped into the chalk sidewalk painting and were immersed in another world? That's the sensation I felt reading The Margot Affair - from the first page I felt like I lived inside the character's world, Sanae Lemoine writes just beautiful word images you can practically smell the baguettes baking on the Parisian streets where the titular character, teenage Margot, lives with her Mom, famed stage actress Anouk. The story of Margot, the illegitimate daughter of Anouk and a rising French politician (married) and the fall out of what happens when Margot takes extreme action to finally get recognized as his second family, the one he loved the best. It's a touching story, but what I really most were the descriptions of Paris landmarks, the food...everything really comes to life. I loved this book and can't wait to read the author's second book. It left me crazing more - and craving fresh French bread with creamy real butter and homemade pear jam.

I read this breathless story of desire, deceit, neglect, and betrayal in one day. The fully realized main character is just young and naive enough to believe she can control the narrative once her life is publicly upended. This sexy coming-of-age novel set in Paris asks how well we know those we love the most and how we can begin to reconcile our visions of those closest to us with the facade they display to the world.

This is a frustrating book to review, for as much as I loved it, I'm not entirely sure who the target audience is. Our heroine, Margot, is seventeen, but this isn't a young adult novel (not really). The intimate romantic drama between Margot's parents, a married politician and a famous actress, is sophisticated, but it takes a backseat to Margot's coming-of-age. In fact, the majority of the drama comes from the women in this book - from their jealousies and loves, their spats and shortcomings, and their effects on each others' lives. All of this, of course, is seen through the eyes of Margot, our aforementioned heroine - which returns us to the question: who is this book for? The answer, I think, is a frustrating one: it's for everyone and no one. This is a book that doesn't neatly fit into a genre, which makes it a gem to discover and read. This lush, literary family drama avoids the trappings of similar family drama fiction. Aided by lush writing and incredible detail, this book swept me away to the Paris of Margot's narration - perfect travel reading for when we're all stuck at home. Recommended for anyone who wants a good read, or just to escape to a charming and engaging setting for a little while.

Is it reasonable to say that this is the modern-day, political Bonjour Tristesse?  Margot only sees her father a few times a year--that is, in person.  The rest of the time, she can watch him on the television as the grand politician that he is.  She is the result of her mother's affair with him years ago, and both her mother and her father are very trusting in each other's ability to keep their relationship from all those years ago secret.  But the more that Margot grows older, the more she wants a father figure in her life.  After all, his other children have that, so why not her?

When she meets a reporter at one of her mother's dramatic performances, she toys with the idea of letting the truth be known.  And if the truth was known, then perhaps the problem of her lacking a father would be solved.  But what will her father's wife say?  And how will such a release of information affect his political status?

When she anonymously spills the beans, she quickly realizes how her words have meaning and power.  She has affected relationships, inserted her life into a world of gossip and articles, and finds and loses friendships based on her being the illegitimate child of an actress and a politician.  As she comes to terms with her decision to let her genealogy be known, she also must come to terms that she can't always get what she wants.

Overall, this was a compelling novel that I adored on the basis that I knew what they were talking about, what with the Bacs and the tabacs cobblestone streets.  It took me back to another time, and made it easy for me to feel transported to another place.  It's well crafted, and makes for quite a good story.  Definitely worth reading, especially if you're a fan of the political and personal.

I was fascinated by this story of a seventeen-year-old girl in Paris who is the secret daughter of a famous politician and a prominent stage actress. Margot is finishing her last year of high school, studying furiously, along with her best and only friend, for an important exam that will open opportunities for university. She lives with her mother, who is often emotionally distant and caught up in her acting work, yet there is a strong bond between them. All her life it has been just the two of them, although Margot’s teacher-turned-politician father visits when he can. She has always known that he has a wife and other children and, when she was younger, it was enough knowing that she and her mother were important to him, that they had domestic family moments together, even though they weren’t always as frequent as she would have liked.

After Margot’s mother points out the wife to her while they sit at an outdoor café table, Margot begins to question the situation and wonder about her father’s ‘other’ family. She is dissatisfied suddenly with the fact that her father has never acknowledged her or her mother. She meets a journalist at an event held for her mother and thus begins a journey of discovery about her parents’ relationship with each other and with her, as well as her father’s wife and other children. What she sets secretly in motion has a huge impact on everyone, not least of all Margot herself, as she navigates the emotional terrain between childhood and adulthood. Betrayals and revelations ensue, all narrated from Margot’s young perspective at a pivotal time in her life.

Although I have never been to France, the setting and characters in this novel evoked very strongly for me an atmosphere and life as I imagine it is lived there. From the everyday details about the city, its cafés and streets to the conversations between characters, everything seems permeated by what feels like a very French way of life. I could easily imagine this story as a French film.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Hogarth, as well as the author, for providing me with an eARC of this riveting debut novel. It will be released on June 16, 2020 and I highly recommend it as an absorbing and interesting read.

Wow! This book was amazing! I had to keep reminding myself that this is a work of fiction because it felt so real. I loved being immersed in to the French culture. The characters were interesting and had lots of depth.

Margot, who is the product of an affair, lives alone with her emotionally distant, artistic mother, and sees her father occasionally when he pops in for visits. After a chance sighting of her father’s wife, Margot begins to question the status quo of her family’s dynamic. Why do she and her mother have to settle for her father’s leftovers? Why won’t he publicly acknowledge her as his daughter? And most importantly, does he loves his first family best?
Margot decides to assert some control over her familial situation, but isn’t prepared for the fallout.
While the pace of the story was a little slow, I found myself drawn into Margot’s world as she navigates moving into adulthood and independence, while still clinging to her lifelong desire to be parented.
I appreciated the authenticity of the author’s portrayal of being a teenager - how it can be both devastating and exhilarating at the same time.
Thank you to #netgalley and #hogarthpress for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was amazing! It really explored complicated relationships and female friendships. I found myself relating to Margot.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Margot Affair follows the love child of a French actress and a prominent French politician. In an attempt to legitimize her place in her father's life, Margot enlists the assistance of a well known reporter. The plan backfires when her subterfuge is revealed and her father cuts off both her and her mother. Margot sees support from the reporter and his wife and in doing so becomes embroiled in an affair of her own.

There is something so very French about this story. Though the pace is almost sleepy, there is a riot of activity happening below the surface. Francophiles and lovers of family dramas will enjoy this story.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Hogarth Books for a ARC of The Margot Affair in exchange for an honest review.

For fans of Sally Rooney and Jessica Andrews, The Margot Affair is a parisian dive into the love affair and its familial consequences between an actress, a politician, and their daughter. From the perspective of seventeen-year old Margot, I was immediately pulled into her thoughts and attempts to interpret the world her parents had built for her. Through Margot's thoughts I quickly recognized that she was smarter than I was at seventeen, but between idolizing her absent father and the pull she felt between adoring and resenting her aloof mother, the book felt real to the thoughts of a seventeen-year old who was no longer a child but had yet experienced the intricacy of adulthood. I adored this book, and loved reading these characters in the backdrop of Paris. The author beautifully described the city as if I visited long ago and she was helping me remember my own non-existent memories.

An absorbing & exhilarating read, a book I stayed up all night reading. In the same vein as Chelsea Bieker's GODSHOT, this coming of age novel explores the relationship between mothers and daughters with humanity & complexity. This is one of my favorite releases this spring.